Nikos Georgeas, defender for AEK, has extended his contract with AEK for an additional two years. Since he has been with AEK since 2000 the end of these 2 years will conclude his tenth year with the team. He did not get as much playing time as he would have liked last year due to injuries however, when he did play this past year, he looked very promising. He hopes to win the championship and to make good progress in UEFA next year with AEK.

Greece suffered a surprising defeat over the weekend as the lost 3-2 to Hungary. This defeat comes just weeks before the team plays its first match in the group stages against Sweden for EURO 2008.

Greece played sloppy football much like the team that rated 61st in the world many years back, not the 8th in the world, one behind France team they are now. It was only a friendly, a game planned simply to help prepare the team before the EURO which is good thing. Clearly, the team isnt as flawless and perfect as many fans had expected. But, as Coach Otto Rehagel said, hopefully this defeat will turn out to be a well timed wake up call.

The only two goals came from Amanatidis and AEK striker Nikos Lyberopoulos. The first goal came after Gekas lost his footing inside the penalty box and Amanatidis was quickly able to get to the ball and easily hit it into the net to put Greece up 1-0 before the break.

Greece then allowed 3 goals in in 18 minutes. Greece however managed to pull one goal closer with a Lyberopoulos header in extra minute however it turned out to be too late.

The only injuries were to keeper Antonis Nikopolidis and possible future AEK midfielder Angellos Basinas.

AEK will head to Fuschlsee in Salzburg, Austria on the 7th of July, eight days after the final of EURO 2008, to begin summer preperation and practises.

AEK will play a friendly game while in Austria with a team that will be announced shortly. AEK will then return to Athens on the 19th of June. The second stage of preparation will occur between the 24th of July and the 4th August where AEK will play some more friendlies. Details of these friendlies are expected to be announced within the next few days as well.

Giorgos Alexopoulos, who has been out due to injury approximately two years has finally returned to playing and has just agreed on signing along with AEK for another two years.

He had the following to say: “My return to the field after a two years absence, will be once again in AEK’s shirt.It’s a comeback I owe to the team, to the fans and to everyone supporting me during this time.I would like to express a great thank to the President and to the team’s management and coach, Μr. George Donis, as well, for giving me opportunity to continue playing high level football, pursuing Greek and European titles with my teammates. For me this seems like a new beginning and I’m eager to find myself back in the stadiums in order to assist in our mutual goals and to make the team’s fans proud”.

Hopefully he will be back to playing high quality football with AEK next year. The fans are definately awaiting his first performance.

AEK have signed 31 year old Swedish center back Daniel Majstorovic for three years. Majstorovic’s previous team was FC Basel in Switzerland where he scored 23 goals in 85 appearances. His average is 1 goal every 7 games. He turned down offers from Lazio.

Well, AEK, along with Giorgos Donis will have to settle for UEFA Cup next year after drawing with Panionios following PAO’s 3-1 victoy over Aris. At this point, with one match remaining in the Playoffs, it will be impossible for AEK to finish first in the Playoffs.

AEK went down first after a goal by Panionios player Fernandez in the 21st minute.

AEK quickly evened out the game after Rivaldo nailed in a penalty. Blanco was tackled inside the penalty box by Panionios keeper Kresic. It was a needed tackle which would have most likely resulted in a goal by Blanco who was about to swerve to the left of the keeper which would have left him an open net to tap the ball into.

AEK took the lead in the 39th minute after a perfectly set up cross to Blanco by Ramos was headed to Lyberopoulos who headed the ball into the net out of reach of the Panionios keeper.

“Allright” I was thinking at this point “AEK simply let their guard down for the first Panionios goal and were slowly starting to get back into the game”. Unfortunately the game was only showed on Supersport, a chanel which we do not have access to so I ended up having to listen to the match on the radio. On the radio, it was very difficult to see how poorly AEK was actually playing. When I saw the highlights on TV after the match I realized that, although AEK had some decent chances to score, Panionios also had many chances to score and humiliate AEK like the other teams we played in the Playoffs had.

AEK led the game 2-1 for the rest of regulation time from this point onward. The nineteeth minute came and I was praying for the referee to blow the whistle. Unfortunately, however, the officials decided upon four minutes of extra time. It was in the first minute of extra time that AEK displayed the worst “Defence” in the history of the team, and possibly, I’m quite serious, in the history of the sport of soccer. And it was due to this pathetic defence that Panionios tied the game. Although the coach thought our defenders were fouled, the ref did not think so. During the press conference the coach said he will take what ever team he has left to the final game and be done with this “diadikasia”, u can almost translate it to “ordeal”.

PAO is currently tied 0-0 with Aris in the 38th minute. A draw for Aris against PAO and a win for AEK against PAO this wednesday at home for AEK will be enough to ensure that AEK finish first in the Playoffs and can therefore qualify for Champions League.

The squad for AEK’s away match against Panionios will consist of many regulars such as Lyberopoulos, Rivaldo, Ramos, Lagos, Blanco, and Manduca (who is back from injury).

Alexopoulos who has recently recovered from injury will also be going along with Kapetanos, Kafes, Kone, Azcarate, Arabatzis, Moretto, Bourbos, Tatzidis, Geraldo, Pliatsikas, and Pavlis.

Papastathopoulos, Nsaliwa, and Edinho will are not allowed to play due to cards accumulated.

Dellas, Kallon, Macho, and Georgeas are all injured or feeling discomfort.